DCAT Week ’18: DowDuPont Outlines Integration of Combined Company, Including Excipients Business
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Angela Strzelecki |
Angela Strzelecki, Global Business Director for Pharmaceutical Excipients at DuPont Nutrition & Health, part of DowDuPont, the combined company resulting from the mega merger of The Dow Chemical Company and DuPont, provided an overview of the new company and specifically its strategic position in the pharmaceutical industry. Strzelecki spoke at the DCAT Week ’18 Member Company Announcement Forum, which was held Monday, March 19, 2018 in New York.
Strzelecki outlined the formation of the new combined company and an additional transaction that added to the company’s excipient business. On December 11, 2015, The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) and E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (“DuPont”) announced entry into an agreement and plan of merger under which the companies would combine in an all-stock merger of equal transaction. Effective August 31, 2017, the merger transaction was completed and each of Dow and DuPont became subsidiaries of DowDuPont Inc. Three months later, on November 1, 2017, DowDuPont announced that DuPont had completed its acquisition of FMC Corporation’s Health & Nutrition business, except for the omega-3 business, and its divestment to FMC of a portion of DuPont’s crop protection business. The divestiture satisfied DuPont’s commitments in connection with regulatory clearance of the merger with Dow.
DowDuPont is a holding company with the intent to leverage its breadth of products, applications knowledge, and market reach to form three focused, independent, publicly traded companies in the agriculture, materials science, and specialty products sectors. Materials Science is anticipated to separate by the end of the first quarter of 2019, and Agriculture and Specialty Products are expected to separate by June 1, 2019.
Strzelecki explained that the intended Specialty Products company will become the new DuPont, and bring DuPont’s history of science and innovation to the markets it serves: Electronics & Imaging, Transportation & Advanced Polymers, Safety & Construction, and Nutrition & Biosciences. Based on 2017 pro forma sales, it is anticipated that Specialty Products will be a $21-billion company, with each reporting segment of approximately equal size.
Within the Nutrition & Biosciences division will live DuPont Nutrition & Health, which combines the heritage DuPont Nutrition & Health business, FMC Health & Nutrition, and Dow Pharma and Food.
The heritage DuPont Nutrition & Health business, which is focused on the food, beverage, and dietary supplement industries boosted its value to the pharmaceutical market when it acquired FMC Health and Nutrition and merged with Dow Food and Pharma Solutions. As the developer of microcrystalline cellulose and Avicel, FMC was a strong player in the pharmaceutical excipients industry, with a broad portfolio in cellulosics and seaweed extracts. Heritage Dow Food and Pharma was the inventor of and the primary driver in the cellulosics ether space since bringing these products to market in the late 1930s.
Strzelecki explained that through these companies, DuPont Nutrition & Health now provides an expanded and complementary portfolio of excipients in oral delivery for immediate, controlled, and delayed release as well as for solubility enhancement.